


Riptide

by jasminetea



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-14 18:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15394341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminetea/pseuds/jasminetea
Summary: Hannibal is the pilot known for eating his partner to stay alive. Will, drift compatible with everyone, is sent in to pilot with him.





	Riptide

**Author's Note:**

> Written awhile ago for pinstripesuit's prompt: "would Will Graham be drift compatible with EVERYBODY." (Pinstripe if you have an AO3 username, I'm happy to list this as a gift to you!) 
> 
> This drabble is complete, with no plans of continuation.

Being compatible with everybody isn’t what everybody thinks it is.  He gets shuffled around the globe like cargo, shipped out from the small flood-prone house he refused to give up and away from his dogs.  When a pilot goes down and they need a quick replacement, they think, _let’s put Will Graham in; he’s drift compatible with everyone_.

What they keep ignoring is the growing tide of memories.  Will may be compatible with everyone, but each person he synchs with is yet another wave of memories to ride. Dozens of lives to make sure another person doesn’t sink beneath when they drift.  All his co-pilots know it, even if the higher ups don’t, and they look at him with pity in their eyes afterward.

Will’s been closer to some people than anyone else ever will, but that closeness is fleeting.  The tangent symmetry of two pilots who’ve drifted together time after time, that intimacy is something he doesn’t know, and he’s not sure if he ever will.  He’s too useful as he is.

But then Jack Crawford is requesting him to pilot with Hannibal Lecter.  The same Hannibal who was stranded for a week after a kaijuu had sunk him in the Pacific and had eaten his dead partner to survive.  While official reports say his pilot was dead before they got stranded, Will’s well aware of the rumors that Hannibal killed his partner to survive.

Will doesn’t want to know a mind like that intimately, but Will is a damn fine pilot.  Hannibal Lecter’s not going to change that.

 


End file.
